Matthew Bellamy definition of Hyper Music

Matt said that the song it's about "Wanting to destroy a person you've loved"[1] he also said in another interview: "This one really rocks out, it's really full-on but the lyrics are just plain negative, just pure anger and disregard for affection, the opposite of ‘’Bliss’’. It's actually linked to a book I read called ‘Hyper Space’, which is about how all the laws of nature and physics combine in the 10th Dimension in pure mathematics to form one main theme"[2]

Composition

Hyper Music is a metal/heavy rock song with a moderately fast tempo of 122 bpm. Musically chaotic, the guitar-based intro is built around a dissonant D/F polychord. The verse is outlined by a frantic bassline climbing the D dorian scale, with hints of D harmonic minor.

Bellamy's vocal range spans from G3 to A5. The song contains Matt's highest falsetto note in a studio recording, as well as many A4's in the modal register, which is one of Bellamy's highest notes, making this arguably a very difficult vocal.

Since it's return to live shows, the A4's during the verse are mostly sung in full voice by Bellamy, in contrast to older performances in which he sang this part in falsetto.

Since 2011, Chris sings the chorus instead of Matt.

Additional information

Could be about the same person as in Hate This and I'll Love You and Uno. Someone who was associated with the band before they made it, who Matt had reason to dislike. (On a similar theme Sunburn seems to be about a girl who was associated with them, who in contrast Matt regrets having to leave behind, because he sees her as a star).

Other readings of the song's lyrics have developed a hypothesis that this song is of an anti-religious nature. The lyrics could be a narrative from a messianic figure such as Jesus Christ. "Golden lies" could be those of priests, rabbis, etc. who "feed [God's] role" in the world. The lies not being that God/Jesus exists, after all he says "Who's returned from the dead? Who remains?" (somewhat rhetorical questions); the lies are more likely to be that he was here to save mankind, "I don't love you and I never did". The second verse deals with his reason for not wanting us, "You wanted more than I was worth" - a superhuman messiah that has evidently not saved us from our sins; "And you think I was scared" being a reference to Jesus' apparent fear of his upcoming crucifixion, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14, Luke 22: 43-44); "And you needed proof", something which our modern secular and scientific age begs for and which there is very little in any religion's defence. "Who really cares any more?" - it is over, God does not love us, he does not care, he has forsaken us and hence the suffering we see across the world.

The book Hyper Space by Michio Kaku is a foundation inspiration for the entire album, especially the title and Hyper Music can be seen as a direct reference to that book. The book's various metaphysical discussions about religion lend more weight to the religious reading of the song's lyrics.

Interestingly, a typo/mishearing of the lyrics is printed in the sleeve of Origin of Symmetry. The line, "Your golden lies feed my role," is printed as "Your golden skies feed my role". This is most likely due to early live versions of the song where Matt sings "skies" instead of "lies".

Live

Hyper Music was played mildly often throughout the Showbiz era in the form of a bluesy riff. It is believed this riff, which was played sometimes towards the end of concerts, provided the basis for this song. It was performed for the first time in October 2000 and played rather often from that point on until the end of the year, more often than other new songs from the same time period such as Shrinking Universe and Micro Cuts. The early version of Hyper Music featured notable screaming during the chorus, especially the Channel V performance. The song was not named until the Origin of Symmetry tour, going under the title "Untitled".